Tripping Forward
by XxIndegoxX
Summary: What happens when you wake up five years in the future and things aren't the way you thought they would be.
1. Chapter 1 One Year

**_Words in italic are Maxs thoughts_**

Tripping Forward

Chapter 1: One Year, Things Change

"Great, just great" Max whispered to herself. She was sitting in her office in H.Q. Going over another very long list of supplies needed for T.C. also known as Terminal City, "Just another one to add to the already overflowing pile" she said glaring at the high pile on the top of her filling cabinet.

It had been one year since the jam pony incident, one year since they held up in Terminal City and nothing had changed. They where no closer to getting their freedom, White was still hell bent on destroying all "Transgenic scum"

Max and Logan, well there really weren't a "them" anymore. She loved him, told him as many times as she could but he couldn't do it anymore. He started to pull away from her little by little and at the time she didn't notice. She couldn't see the warning bells being turned on every time they were together. _Maybe she didn't want to see them? _So on that fateful day when he finally let her go she protested and pretty much threw a hissy fit. _She told him he was an idiot. That they would figure this bitch out, no matter how long it takes. They belonged together._

But he didn't feel the same, at least not anymore. She stopped talking to him and completely avoiding him whenever he was present at T.C. But she knew the truth, she knew he was right. They were no closer to finding the cure then Columbus was in finding China. And maybe, just maybe that stupid jack-ass Alec, her partner in crime was right?

Just thinking about him brought different emotions to her now. Before there was hate, disgust and a slight tinge of pain. _The pain, _just looking at him brought up that emotion for her. His face was a constant reminder of what she lost, a brother, a friend, her family. His face was a haunting reminder of what she did what she had to do.

But it wasn't anymore, those feelings where long gone now. So were her nightmares about him turning into Ben, the ones that she was forced to kill him in the same cruel manner as she did her brother, his brother. But it was all gone. The feeling of hate was turned into feelings of love, love for a friend, her best friend. Disgust was turned into admiration; the once hated "I'm always alright" attitude was something she admired now.

Now she knew the truth about him, he told her everything right down to his trips to Psy-ops to the very painful truth about Rachel. And now she admired him, the way he was able to put on the happy façade when she knew he was far from it. He did it to protect himself yes but he also did for them, for all of them. If he can get over what happened to him then everyone else can get over their pain to. The feeling of pain of the memories now was replaced with happiness, pure and simple happiness. He was her best friend the one person who truly understood her. Who knew everything about her and still loved her for her.

"Hey Maxie, we have been summoned to the conference hall" He said leaning against her office door frame in his usual cocky stance. His arms crossed his chest while his left ankle crossed over his right.

"_Huh speak of the Devil!" Max thought to herself. _"Weird. I was just thinking about you" She said to Alec as she was absent-minded still enthralled in her long grocery list.

"Oh please tell me it was something dirty" he chuckled "Because you know I would **LOVE** to make it a reality."

"You just can't help yourself can you?" she was laughing this was one of their things. She said something among the right lines, he made it dirty. She was pissed, he was sarcastic.

"You know I really can't" his hand was pressed to his heart mocking pain. "It's just who I am."

She shook her head at him. Yep this was what she needed. He always had his ways of taking her mind off of the painful subjects that invaded her every day. Usually she would turn to OC for this comfort but because of White she couldn't do that. She had to send OC, Sketchy, Normal and anyone else she was close to as far away as she could.

White had tried to use her friendships to his advantage. He kidnapped OC and Sketchy, tortured them and almost killed them to lure Max out of TC so he could finally kill her. But for once luck was on her side and she, Alec and their TC team had gotten to them just in time, but of course there was one little glitch, one that almost cost her, her life. She was fighting one of White's goons her attention was completely drawn to him. That's why she didn't see it or rather hear him; White coming up behind her with his gun drawn. When she finally realized what was going to happen she didn't have time to react all she could do is close her eyes and wait to die. When the shot rang out, she tensed her body, waiting for the impact of the bullet. But the impact never came. She knew in that moment what or who had blocked the bullet from her for that matter. She could smell it, his blood invaded her senses. From this day she can't remember what happened. When the familiar sent of blood hit her she lost all control. She was told that she almost killed White that day; it took four X5's to drag her out of the compound before she could do what she so desperately wanted to do. "_He took a bullet for me! He almost died because of me!" _She thought to herself realizing how Alec's feelings have changed in less than a year. She already had someone she loved died to save her she didn't want to add Alec to the list.

Alec had spent three weeks in the makeshift med lab they set up in an abandoned business building. He had almost died, twice. She stayed with him the whole time he was there only left him alone to get them food or to take a shower. She slept by him, ate with him and of course he had made his half-assed remarks of how domestic they were acting and she had reminded him that if he ever did anything like that again she would kick-his-ass! He almost died for her that day. He exchanged his life for hers and for the life of her she didn't understand why. Would she have done the same thing? Just a brief second after the memory of what Alec had looked like in that hospital bed confirmed the answer. _Yes! Absolutely with no hesitation!_The image of him in that bed crossed her mind again and she outwardly shuddered.

"Max!" he tried again to get her attention. He walked over to her and bent down on his knees to look her in the eye's "Are you ok?" He cupped her cheek in his hand and assessed her eyes.

"Hmm" The feel of his and on her face brought her out of her trance "I'm fine Alec"

"You where thinking about things you shouldn't be" The hurt in her eyes where too pain full for him to stand.

"I'm fine Alec. Really" She abruptly pulled her head out of his grasp. She took a deep breath before finally standing and making her way to the door "We should go. We don't want to be late." She said over her shoulder and continued on her way to the conference hall.

"Yeah" he sighed. He slowly stood up and brushed the dust of his knees. "We don't want that" He closed his eyes for brief second and steadied his breathing and with that he followed after Max for another boring meeting.

Or for what he thought would be...


	2. Chapter 2 It Never Stops

Tripping Forward

Chapter 2: It Never Stops

When they walked into the conference room everyone was already seated in their places around the large rectangle table. Assigned C.O.'s of various units sat around. Mole from weaponry, Jared a tall very handsome man with piercing blue eyes from Medical, Tara a short buxom woman with fairy short red hair from Special Ops, Dix from technology, Luke from security, and David a medium height well built man from K.P. Alec and Max took their seats at each end of the table.

Dix stood up "So I guess you all are wondering why I asked you here" he said as he shot a glance towards Max and pointedly looked at Alec waiting for his usual remark.

"No not really" Alec said on cue.

Max couldn't help but smile at him. He was his usual cocky annoying self and she loved him for it. It was like he could sense her inner turmoil and did whatever he could to make her smile. Alec turned and looked at her tilting his head to the side and smiled as if he could read her mind.

Luke cleared his throat and stood up beside Dix "We got word from an informant that White has kidnapped two X5s." Luke paused and let everyone sink in the information.

Alec tensed and sat up straight in his seat "Why would he do that?" he demanded "I mean….. doesn't he want to kill all of us?" he said softly shooting an apologetic glance towards Max.

Dix sighed "Apparently he is going to use them…." Dix glanced towards the ground and softly continued "…as experimental subjects."

Everyone in the room tensed. _This is not what we need right now! _She thought to herself. _Can't we just have one moment of peace? Dammit is that so much to ask? _She leaned back against her chair and stared at the ceiling. _They should have just let me kill him. _She sighed and closed her eyes.

"Why?" She asked not directing it to anyone. When there was no answer she opened her eyes and stared at Dix. He looked at her for a second and turned away avoiding her gaze. _I'm not going to like this._

"Why?" she demanded. Dix took a hesitant step back from the table and glanced towards Alec for a second. _Yep I'm definitely not going to like this. _Alec waved his hand at Dix signaling for him to continue.

"He wants to see what the difference is between them and you Max." Dix said hesitantly.

"What do you mean?" She furrowed her brows in confusion.

"Well you're an X5 but your physiology is different." Luke chimed in "You have no junk DNA."

"So what?" She shrugged "We all know Sandeman was the one who created me."

"Yeah but White wants to find out how." Dix nodded "How he made you, well you."

She glared at Dix. _Of course it always has to be about me!_ She looked down at the pad of paper resting in front of her on the table. _Sometimes I wish this was all over with, no matter the outcome for me is. I don't want to do this anymore_. A low growl broke through the silence in the room. She looked up to be faced with an extremely pissed Alec staring at her. _How can he read me so well?_

She turned towards Dix and nodded. "So…he is going to tweak with the two X5's DNA to see if he can get the same out come?" She glanced towards Alec and he relaxed.

"Pretty much." Luke nodded.

Alec sighed "Ok so how can we intervene?" he said looking back and forth between Max and Dix "It's not like we can send him a post card saying _Dear White please give us back our X5's we miss them. Love your favorite residents of TC."_

She couldn't help but laugh "Smart-Alec" she said well shaking her head at him.

"Hey that's why you named me." He smirked "It's who I am."

"So does your informant know where White is taken them?"She asked Dix.

Dix shook his head "He is tracking them as we speak. We should have the location within the hour"

She nodded and looked at Alec_. So we take the tunnels and then what? _She thought._ White will know we will come to help them; he will be prepared for it. _Alec nodded clearly knowing what she was thinking._ But we have to do what we have to do to protect our own. _Alec smiled.

Mole finally spoke up "Will you two stop staring at each other!" He slammed his fist on the table "I know you two have this weird telepathic thing going on but it's starting to creep us all out!"

Alec laughed "Well I know I need some rest me and Max have been up for two days straight." He stood up and walked to the door "You coming?" He asked staring at Max.

"Yeah I guess call me when you have the location." She made her way towards Alec "We will reconvene tomorrow to plan out the rescue mission." And they both left.

She and Alec have been living together for four months now because of the housing shortage in TC. Alec gave away his apartment to a single mother and her three children; he was forced to sleep on a rotting couch in his office. Eventually Max gave in and let him move in with her. Her apartment was the biggest in TC with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. She enjoyed having Alec live with her but she would never tell him that.

They both walked into their apartment and Alec went straight to the kitchen to get two beers for himself and Max "You know with all this rescuing we have been doing over the years I think we should at least have costumes." He said handing her a beer.

"Not this again." He had been going on about the costume deal for weeks now.

"I'm serious Max." he took his coat off and slumped down into their coach "I'm thinking maybe a cape for me."

"Oh yeah you would look great in tights." She said sarcastically and sat on the couches armrest.

"I know you would." he stared off into space for awhile no doubtingly thinking about what she would look like.

"Alec" she rolled her eyes at him.

He cleared his throat and snapped back to reality "Anyway a cape for me full body armor. I'm thinking black leather corset for you along with a leather mini skirt maybe red…. oh no black with red tights."

"Alec!"She cried out and stood to face him.

"What?" he put on an innocent face and stared at her.

She shook her head "Go to bed."

He rolled his eyes "Fine." He sighed "But think about it, it could be really cool." He waved his right hand in the air trying to paint the picture "I can see it now Maximum Girl or Hot Girl."

She scoffed "Yeah and you could be Smart-Alec Boy Wonder."

He shook his head at her "I was thinking Rogue X or Lady-killer" he smirked at her.

She threw her hands in the air exasperated "Go to bed!"

"Fine!" he yelled and stomped to his room "Goodnight" he winked at her and closed his door.

She smiled "Goodnight." She whispered.

She sat down on the couch and stared off into space thinking about that faithful night that changed her and Alec's relationship.


	3. The Start Of Something New

I dont know when I will be posting again. I lost my beta reader and she is usually the one that helps me work out the kinks in my story. If anyone would like to help me out with this let me know but im pretty much doing this on my own now and I dont know when I will be able to complete it. ~ Indego

Tripping Forward

Chapter 3: The Start Of Something New

She needed to talk to him he had been acting off since they arrived in T.C. He was unusually quite one moment and telling off anyone who tried to talk to him the next. She had enough he wasn't helping everyone with his mood swings and they sure as hell needed everyone's input.

She ran up the first floor steps of his apartment building. Everyone was assigned their own quarters and lucky for them there wasn't many of their own kind there yet. But soon more would be arriving and they knew that eventually they would run out of room.

She cautiously approached his door. She wasn't sure what his reaction to her being there would be. _He is ether going to be pissed or his usually smart-ass self._

"Well now or never" She said and slowly brought her hand up and knocked on his door. She heard a slight shuffling sound on the other side. She stood there for a minute waiting for him to either open the door or tell her to go the hell away. But nether came.

"Yep definitely going to be difficult" She banged louder on his door "Alec, its Max. We need to talk."She stood there another minute and waited.

"This is ridiculous!" She screamed at the door. "Ok this has gone on long enough. Alec, I'm coming in. And you better be decent." She pulled out her lock picks "And alone." She added as a afterthought she definitely did _**NOT**_ want to see that.

It took her less than ten seconds to open the flimsy lock. The apartment was dark the only light source was from the bright moon peering through the drawn curtains. She slowly inched her way into the tiny apartment. Once her eyes adjusted to the darkness she spotted him sitting against the far wall opposite her. He had his legs drawn up against his chest and his head against his knees. Just looking at him she knew something was very wrong.

"Alec. We need to talk" She slowly made her way to him. With every step she took towards him his body increasingly tensed.

"Max, get the hell out of here!" She stopped dead in her tracks. She expected him to be angry but not hurt. Alec was good at hiding his feelings but tonight it seemed like he didn't care.

"No Alec, we need to talk. What's going on with you?"She continued her way forward and sat in front of him.

"Alec, what's going on?"She hesitantly touched his arm. He jerked away and cuddled closer to the wall.

"Get out!" He pushed her away from him. She fell backwards on her back. He never lashed out at her like that before.

She decided to leave him there and bask in his depression alone. She got up and made her way towards the front door. _He has never done that before. Well once. _He acted the same way after the Berrisford fiasco. He still hadn't told her about what really happened_. I can't just leave him, can I? _She remembered the day she told him about Ben. He stayed with her that night and made sure she was alright.

She turned back to him. He still hadn't moved from against the wall. _Why do I have a feeling I'm going to regret this? _She made her way towards him and sat down next to him against the wall.

"No. I'm staying" She leant her head against the wall. This was going to be a long night.

They both sat there for a few hours. The silence was slowly driving her crazy_. I should have brought a book. _She knew that he wasn't going to be the first one to break the silence but she needed him to talk.

"Ok so are you going to tell me what's going on?" She hoped he would give her his usually smart-alec response.

"What's going on" he laughed bitterly "Well Max what do you think is going on?" He turned to look at her she could tell he had been crying.

"If I knew I wouldn't be here" She looked away from him. She didn't like seeing this side of Alec. She hated his 'I'm always alright' attitude but it was one that she defined who he was. This emotional side of Alec was one she wasn't used to and one she didn't like.

"You really don't care do you?" He said lifting himself of the floor and made his way towards the kitchen counter. It was cluttered with empty scotch bottles and dirty glasses. He grabbed the only un-drunk bottle and finished it without stopping for air.

"What are you talking about?"She got up and walked to the kitchen counter facing him on the opposite side.

"Biggs and Cece are dead, did you forget that?"He said glaring at her.

"Of course not!"She screamed. He was starting to piss her off which was nothing new they couldn't have a conversation without one of them getting mad.

"Really because you sure as hell aren't acting like you care." He snapped and started pacing in the tiny kitchen. "They were our friends Max! How can you act so uncaring?"

"Uncaring! Uncaring!" She snapped. _Does_ _he really think that? Is that what he thinks of me?_ "You think I don't care?"She whispered. Of course she cared she was just so good at being closed off nobody could see. Nobody knew how much it took to just get out of bed in the morning. Nobody knew how unpleasantly numb she was but it was something she became used to over the years.

"You sure are acting like you don't" he turned and stared at her.

"You think this is easy for me. Having to add two more people to my long list of the one's I've lost." she yelled, as he glared at her.

She sighed "When I heard you went after those guys that killed Biggs I wished I was there with you." She paused to think about what to say next "Of course at first I was mad. You could have gotten yourself and Joshua killed!" she screamed and started pacing in front of the counter "But then I wished that I was there with you to show those men and everyone that you don't mess with my family." She stopped and stared at him.

"You did?" he said with an unbelieving expression on his face.

"Of course" she shrugged.

He turned his back from her "How do you stand it?" he whispered "Losing everyone around you? When I first got out of Manticore I tried to stay detached I knew that this was inevitable but it became too hard… I couldn't. Every time I was around you, Sketchy, OC or Joshua it got too hard to keep all of you at arm's length." He turned to look at her with tears running down his cheeks "I shouldn't have come back I should of stayed away, it wouldn't hurt this much if I stayed away." He looked at the floor.

She made her way around the counter and stood in front of him "It hurts because we are human Alec, because we loved them. It's supposed to hurt." She put her hand under his chin and lifted his head to look at her.

He started to cry harder "I can't do it anymore Max watching my friends drop like flies I can't do it." His voice cracked "I should just leave."

She shook her head "You are not going anywhere!"

He quirked an eyebrow at her "I'm not?"

She put her hands on her hips "Nope, you're not."

He started to laugh at her "And what makes you so sure?"

She sighed and leaned against the counter "Because that's not you Alec, not anymore."

"Really?"He crossed his arms over his chest.

"Really!" she shouted "You don't run away." She sighed on lifted herself up on the kitchen counter "Look you, Sketchy, OC, Joshua and Logan you guys are my family and I'm not letting any of you out of my sight!"

He made a disgusted face "I'm not your brother Max!"

She laughed "Did I say that, no." she paused thinking of the right words to say "But your part of this family Alec, this messed up, highly strung family." She stared at him gauging his reaction "And you are not going anywhere, none of us is going anywhere and I'm not going anywhere. And if you do leave well then I'm just going to have to drag you back here after I kick-your-ass." She smiled as he shook his head at her.

They sat there in silence just starring at anything other than each other finally she broke the silence "Well I better go I promised Dix I would come up with a stragedy plan to get the medical supplies we need." She jumped of the counter and made her way towards his front door "I will see you tomorrow, get some rest Alec." she reached for the door knob but was stopped by his hand on hers.

"Hey Max?" he said shyly avoiding her eyes.

She quirked her eyebrows "Yeah.?"

He smiled and looked her in the eyes "Thanks." He let go of her hand and opened the door for her. _That wasn't so bad _she thought as she slipped out his door.

Since that night she and Alec had gotten closer with each passing day. She wouldn't change anything and she wouldn't want things any other way.


End file.
